PRO-LIFE/PRO-BABY ping!
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Posted on 01/04/2007 5:51:39 PM PST by Coleus
This article reports on a 1993 lecture the late French geneticist and pro-life pioneer Dr. Jerome Lejeune delivered at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. This story originally appeared in the January 1994 Columbia and is a companion article to the January 2007 "By Their Works" profile of Knight and pro-life entrepreneur Bill Schneeberger.
Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist, still marvels at the circumstances that caused him to travel from his laboratory in Paris to a Tennessee courtroom to give expert testimony about when life begins. The 1989 case involved a divorced couple, Mary Sue and Junior Davis, who had very different views on the disposition of seven frozen embryos fertilized prior to the couple’s separation. The woman sought custody so that she could one day carry a child to term. Her ex-husband ws opposed; he no longer wanted to become a father.
Contacted by the woman’s representatives and touched by her plight, Lejeune testified there is indisputable scientific evidence that human life begins at conception. “I asked the judge to make the decision of Solomon and give the embryos to the parent who wanted them to live,” he recalled. Lejeune’s point was that an embryo has a human nature from the very beginning and should not be treated merely as “matter.” Convinced by Lejeune’s testimony, the judge ruled in the woman’s favor. But the state’s highest court later ruled that the embryos were not human beings. That decision was in turn upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court (an institution that Lejeune acknowledges he finds it difficult to hold in high esteem).
Jerome Lejeune, internationally acclaimed expert in the field of genetics, is one of the world’s foremost defenders of the dignity of human life — with emphasis on the word human — from its earliest moments. Professor of genetics at Rene Descartes University in Paris, Lejeune discovered the chromosomal abnormality that causes Down syndrome. For his research, he received the Kennedy Award and the William Allen Memorial Award from the American Society of Human Genetics. He is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Science, the Royal Academy of Medicine in London, the Royal Society of Science in Stockholm and many other distinguished societies.
Lejeune was invited by the Knights of Columbus to present the Michael J. McGivney Lectures of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. in October. In his talks, he elaborated on his findings concerning the origins of life and the respect owed to each person, who, he emphasized, is not only human from the moment of conception, but unique as well. He told an attentive audience at Providence Hospital that modern biology teaches that ancestors are united to their progeny by a continuous material link, for it is from the fertilization of the female cell — the ovum — by the male cell — the spermatozoon — that a new member of the species will emerge.
Life has a very long history, Lejeune said, but each individual has a very neat beginning — the moment of conception. “The material link I am speaking about is the molecular thread of DNA,” Lejeune continued. “In each reproductive cell, this ribbon is cut into pieces — 23 in our species — and each segment is so carefully coiled and packaged — like a magnetic tape in a mini-cassette, that under the microscope it appears like a little rod, a chromosome. “As soon as the 23 paternally derived chromosomes are united through fertilization to the 23 maternally derived chromosomes, the full genetic information necessary and sufficient to express all the inborn qualities of the new individual is gathered,” Lejeune said. “Exactly as the introduction of a mini-cassette into a tape recorder will allow the restitution of a symphony, the new being begins to express himself as soon as he has been conceived.”
It is curious, Lejeune said, that natural sciences and the sciences of the law tend to speak the same language. “Of an individual enjoying a robust health, a biologist would say he has a good constitution. Of a society developing harmoniously to the benefit of all its members, a legislator would say that it has an equitable constitution.” The chromosomes are the table of the law of life, and when they have been gathered in the new being they fully spell out his personal constitution.
What is bewildering is the minuteness involved, Lejeune said. “It is hard to believe, though beyond any possible doubt, that the whole genetic information necessary and sufficient to build our body and even our brain, the most powerful problem-solving device, even able to analyze the laws of the universe, could be epitomized so that its material substratum could fit neatly on the point of a needle.”
“Even more impressive, during the maturation of the reproductive cells, the genetic information is reshuffled in so many ways that each conceptus receives an entirely original combination which has never occurred before and will never again. Each conceptus is unique and thus irreplaceable,” Lejeune said.
Because the life of everyone begins at the moment of conception, when the egg is fertilized by sperm, the single cell that results has a unique genetic code, a blueprint that contains “the whole necessary and sufficient information” defining all of that individual’s human characteristics. To explain the DNA within each cell that contains a person’s genetic code, Lejeune cited the bar code used to differentiate items in a supermarket. “Each of us has his own personal bar code” that can be recognized and studied using the high-powered instruments of modern science, he said. “So the teaching of the Church on how we should respect all forms of life is also good biology,” he said.
At a conference in Bucharest some years ago, Lejeune was asked if he holds his views because he is a Catholic or because he is a scientist. “I answered by saying that if the Church taught differently than it does about when life begins, then I would to, for scientific reasons, cease being a Catholic,” he reclled. He expressed his conviction that the Holy Spirit would not permit the Church to teach such a thing. “All scientists know when life begins,” Lejeune stated. “If the scientic establishment had told the truth, then the Supreme Court would not have said in Roe v. Wade that science does not know when life begins.”
Lejeune said Roe v. Wade is like Dred Scott, the 19th century court ruling that blacks were not human and therefore slavery was not wrong. “But Roe is worse,” he said. “The court certainly knew that blacks were human, but they chose to ignore the evidence. But at least that court did not pretend, as the Roe court did, that the evidence did not exist.” So why, he was asked, did the scientific community keep quiet? His answer was characteristically forthright. “Some scientists don’t want to be constrained from doing the things they want to do, so they avoid saying unpopular things,” he stated. “It’s a matter of pride, and prizes. The know they won’t get the grants if they tell the truth about when life begins.”
“There is a curious phenomenon at work in your country, sometimes called ‘political correctness,’” Lejeune continued. “You have so much freedom and yet you are no allowed to know the truth. In France we might have 40 million opinions about the dignity that should be accorded to the embryo, but no one denies the scientific truth that it is human.” Asked at one of the lectures about researchers at George Washington University who had just reported they had conducted experiments in the cloning of human embryos, Lejeune said that this event was not a breakthrough because scientists have had the technology for this for many years. It was instead a “symptom of a severe disease of spirit.” It is necessary to remember that not everything that can be done should be done, he stated. He said that genetic experimentatin should be for the purpose of prevention and cure of hereditary disease, and that the defense of life and the dignity of the human person must be of paramount concern in genetic research.
Research in cloning human embryos is unfortunate “because it gives the impression we are masters of our fate and can discard and delete as we see fit,” he said. “There is a terrible temptation to think that we are dealing with just matter and nothing more.” “When we respect people because they are big, beautiful, powerful, then Hitler and Mengele will have won the war,” he said. “I refuse to accept that.” “The trick is to continue with experiments that will cure diseases but without violating the embryo,” he said. “We need a touchstone to do this, and the only one which will suffice is found in Matthew 25, 40: ‘Whatsoever you do to these, the least of my brethren, you do also to me.’” When he reported this story, William Ryan was the director of the Office for Media Relations at the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C.
--Questioning when life begins about something that is clearly alive makes you look like a moron.--
Clever way of avoiding answering my questions.
What about its DNA? Why make age the arbitrary criteria in determining whether someone is human or not? Why are you willing to decide that it's *not human*? What purpose is there in that?
And I can add: On what basis do you decide that a human egg fertilized by a human sperm is not a human being?
Answers to questions you asked me: Yes, yes, no.
The Vedas state that the soul enters the embryo with the sperm; the sperm actually carries the soul into the egg.
Do you support that life begins in the womb or prior to the womb?
--No.
?
You never asked me that.
I differentiate soul and spirit. The spirit being present with the new life is what differentiates a human organism from the rest of alive organisms on planet Earth. If one does not believe the human has a spirit then I suppose it makes little difference when such an one would acknowledge a human being is present. There are actually some who would not convey the full status of human being until some months after birth, some only at birth, and others at some arbitrarily appointed time after conception.
Changes in abortion law and the exploitation of human beings in ESCR or cloning will happen if just the believers in a human spirit would agree that protection for the alive human spirit is paramount, to protect human beings if there is a spirit present with the new life. It is my sincere prayer that a discussion on not arbitrarily killing a human spirit's life on Earth needs to happen across our society. Getting such rational discussion requires first realizing whether we believe there is a human spirit and then that the advent of that spirit is a question we have not yet answered so society ought move in the direction of protecting, rather than the current selfish direction of abortion on demand regardless of the spiritual nature of the unborn.
This is a deep and most important discussion and that's why--as you have no doubt observed, my deeply religious friend-- I don't pay attention to agitprops and lickspittlists playing games with language to feed their ego or amuse themselves and their soulless fellows with senseless question games. If we can get beyond the initial fundamental points, I would dearly like to discuss the notion of self-defense as it must be applied to the pregnancy termination issue.
You lied and now you compound the lie by lying once again. Welcome to FR, I look forward to smacking you around every chance I get. And for the record it was you who equated dandruff to a human being. Not me, not metmom, not Coleus. Just you while reviling in your ignorance.
I have read thru all of your replies and can tell you that your agenda is transparent, your "debate" style is amateur, your integrity is nil as you dodge questions by saying things like 'stay on topic' but you often go off topic, you accuse others of posting inaccurate data but you ignore your demonstrated inaccuracies.
You cannot fool us no matter how ard you try.
Many of us here know you...we have dealt with posters like you many times before, ones who (clearly to me) are re-cycled FR outcasts who calls places like DarwinCentral home, but have no loyalty or respect or reverence for FR.
Get the hint?
Aside from going to extravagant lengths to divert the real conversation here, you seem to have suddenly developed a fixation on cows.
Considering the amount of BULL you're spouting, it isn't surprising.
Would you consider a hamburger into which someone bled while chopping onions a human? It would contain human DNA. You're getting embarassing.
Do you believe that life begins at conception for humans AND animals? Do you believe its ok to kill pre-born humans?
I'd like you, and anyone who would like to, to answer the following-
If what a woman is pregnant with is NOT a human, what is it?
Phlegm in the womb? Is my stuffy nose pregnant? If I don't blow it, will a baby pop out in 9 months?
Metmom says it was you who said the 'cell' in utero is the same as a cell elsewhere in the human body. IF that is so- I retract my apology.
And the statement-not to mention the thinking- naked singularity stupid.
The lengths some people will go to to avoid calling abortion premediated murder is abominable. And all the creative definitions in the world won't change the fact that abortion kills an living, unborn, human being.
Wonderful comments. The only human viewpoint is to have respect for life just because it is life, and valuable because all lives are created by God in His image. Not because one might be another Einstein, Beethoven, or Mother Theresa, or create a miracle medicine. But just because each and every one is a child of the Supreme Lord and is therefore dear to Him, not matter what physical or mental capabilities or lack thereof. The lacks and flaws are only the in the vehicle part.
You and I differ a small bit - I see that every living being is a soul, underneath the physical covering. I don't restrict that respect for life solely to the human contingent. But human life does indeed have very special meaning, because we are given the depth of intelligence (and I don't mean IQ) to understand that God exists and we should serve Him with love. Animals can't understand that.
(Usually - remember Balaam's ass - who saw the angel before Balaam did!)
The slaughter of innocents before birth is a horrible crime that is causing more and more damage than most people even see.
No one's life is now worth anything.
"The lacks and flaws are only IN THE the vehicle part."
And I even proofread it.
Bedtime, I was up early!
Thanks, I really don't see the benefit of personally attacking someone because they disagree....no matter what the discussion is about...
"Jer. 1:4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
I knew you before you were born...
that was, exactly, my first thought when I saw your ping.
That's a very interesting and clever way of looking at it.
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...
Thanks for the ping!
I thought of "...when you were nothing but a sparkle in your daddy's eye!"
What a beautiful picture!~! A billion cheers for LIFE and for BABIES!!!
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